Washington Wednesday: The Middle East alliance

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 21st of May.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Time now for Washington Wednesday.

“Commerce not chaos” that’s the name of President Trump’s Middle East game—following a five-day trip to the Persian Gulf states last week. The White House promoted the trip as a whirlwind tour of business deals that will benefit the United States. But critics claim the president is opening himself up to a large-scale influence peddling scheme from the nation of Qatar.

Here’s WORLD’s Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: President Trump is back from his first official state visit, touting billions of dollars of investment deals with Middle Eastern countries.

DONALD TRUMP: We have hundreds of different big companies pouring into America, now. Creating jobs like we have never seen before.

Last week he signed major deals with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, some of the wealthiest nations in the world. They plan to invest in American technology, industry, and arms.

MONA YACOUBIAN: I think it is emblematic of how President Trump views his foreign policy, which, it is very transactional.

Mona Yacoubian is the director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She said Trump’s trip contradicts assumptions during his campaign that he would be isolationist and would not interact much on the world stage.

YACOUBIAN: It's very much about what deals can we bring back home to the United States? What benefits US prosperity? And in that sense, I think, you know, it very much was in line with what it was touted to do.

During his trip, President Trump spoke at several investment forums. He accused past administrations of holding up international development by forcing Middle Eastern countries to comply with western standards. He suggested a different approach at the Saudi-US Investment forum:

TRUMP: This great transformation has not come from Western interventionists who are giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions, and charting your own destinies…

During his last term, Trump made deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. At the time, he accused Qatar of funding terrorism, and he helped Saudi Arabia and the UAE enforce a blockade against it. Now, a new alliance has emerged. Trump gave some remarks at a breakfast meeting with business leaders in Doha, the capital.

TRUMP: We are going to protect this country and it's very special place. with a special royal family… And they're going to be protected by the United States of America. and I think we're not going to have to do it because I, I believe very strongly in peace through strength.

Since Trump’s first term, Qatar has become a key mediator between Israel and Hamas. It has heavily invested in the U.S. and paid millions to upgrade the American air base outside Doha. However, it has also sent military aid to Lebanon, some of which has been funneled to the terror group Hezbollah. David Adesnik is director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

DAVID ADESNIK: I think it's more of a symbol of a broader issue, which is that Qatar has found some very effective ways to buy influence and mute criticism of the fact that it very much has one foot on the American side of the fence and one foot firmly on the Hamas-Iran-Turkey side of the fence.

Since the start of the war in Israel, Qatar has frequently hosted mediations between Hamas and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Qatar also often hosts Hamas leaders at its luxury hotels. Adesnik worries that Qatar is buying influence in the United States.

ADESNI: You saw the figures that Trump was touting for potential deals are somewhat astronomical. And when they hire a huge number of lobbyists, they've funneled huge amounts of money to American universities to establish campuses in Qatar. They have an effective way of buying friends.

Trump also announced last week that the royal family of Qatar was giving the United States a $400 billion Boeing jet to be used as the new Air Force One. That set off a firestorm of criticism in Washington. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut took to the Senate floor.

CHRIS MURPHY: Every American, every Republican, every supposed national security advocate in the Senate should be outraged by this.

The current Air Force One is more than 40 years old, and Boeing currently holds a contract to build a new one and a backup. But it’s years behind schedule. The White House insists that the gift does not violate constitutional ethics rules because it is a donation to the Air Force, not specifically the president. If Boeing delivers a new plane by 2028, Trump wants to decommission the Qatar jet after his term ends and store it in a presidential library. Before that, it could cost a billion dollars to retrofit the plane to meet the Air Force’s high security standards. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there may be national security concerns.

JOHN THUNE: I can assure you there will be plenty of scrutiny of whatever that arrangement might look like… There are lots of issues around that that I think will attract very serious questions if and when it happens.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has imposed a hold on unanimous consent for Justice Department nominees until Attorney General Pam Bondi answers questions about whether she approved the plane donation. Bondi was formerly a registered foreign agent when she lobbied businesses and lawmakers on behalf of Qatar…up until becoming Attorney General. On Monday, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois called for Bondi to testify:

DICK DURBIN: In light of these significant ethical concerns I've also requested that Attorney General Bondi provide information related to any ethical consultation on her involvement in the Trump administration's consideration of this gift.

While lawmakers have ethical concerns about accepting the plane and Qatar’s role, Trump says the nation is a new ally. And more importantly, he’s done telling Middle Eastern countries how to live. The bottom line is the deal. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told me that while no country is perfect, Qatar has made improvements, and a holdup over human rights records should not be an impediment to deal-making. Here’s Trump at the Doha meeting.

TRUMP: When you talk about, Qatar, the relationship is uh, equal. I mean it's just like nobody's going to break that relationship. We've never we have never had a relationship uh, with Qatar as strong as it is now.

Most Republicans in Congress have mixed feelings about this new partnership. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma has defended Trump’s decision to accept the plane, while Senators Rand Paul and Shelley Moore Capito are wary of any deals with Qatar.

Meanwhile, next week Washington will hold a Memorial Day Parade through the city, sponsored by Boeing and the State of Qatar.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.